Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Benji, a stray adopted by a PetStore.com staff member from the North Central Los Angeles City Shelter, lounges with a Cell Phones for Soldiers envelope.

Online pet supply store PetStore.com and non-profit Cell Phones for Soldiers Inc. are asking pet owners to help troops call home by donating gently-used cellular phones. Although the military landscape is ever changing, as many as 290,000 troops are serving in the U.S. military overseas around the world. By donating to Cell Phones for Soldiers, pet owners can provide troops with that precious connection to loved ones back home.

“The iPhone 5 was released just five days ago, so there are a ton of people looking to upgrade to a new mobile phone,” said Ben Ros, Director of Operations for PetStore.com. “PetStore.com will include pre-paid Cell Phones for Soldiers envelopes inside the packages we ship to pet owners during the month of October. We hope folks will seize this opportunity to help our soldiers abroad stay in touch with their families, pets included.”

Cell Phones for Soldiers was founded by teenagers Robbie and Brittany Bergquist at the ages of 12 and 13. The charity has since provided more than 168 million minutes of free talk time to servicemen and women stationed around the world. Funds raised from the recycling of cellular phones are used to purchase prepaid international calling cards. On average, Cell Phones for Soldiers distributes 12,000 calling cards each week to bases around the world, care package programs, deployment ceremonies and VA hospitals.

“The Military Benefits Deployment Center lists staying in touch with loved ones as a top-five ‘How to Survive Deployment’ strategy,” said Ros. “There are only so many videos you can watch online of soldiers reuniting with their families and pets after tours of duty before you feel compelled to do something for these brave volunteers.”

Some quick facts about the Cell Phones for Soldiers program:

In 2011, Cell Phones for Soldiers shared 690,000 communication tools with military families, providing more than 41 million minutes of talk time.

The program collected and recycled 1.5 million phones in 2011.

Since 2004, more than 10.5 million cell phones have been recycled, reducing the impact on landfills.

“Each year we have been humbled by the amount of people and organizations like PetStore.com that take the initiative to support our troops,” said co-founder Brittany Bergquist. “We want to continue to mend the communication gap between our armed forces and their loved ones as troops continue to serve our county.”

Donated phones are sent to Michigan-based ReCellular for recycling. For every donated phone valued at $5, Cell Phones for Soldiers is able to provide two and a half hours of free talk time to deployed troops.
Approximately half of the phones ReCellular processes are reconditioned and reused. Phones and components that cannot be refurbished are dismantled and responsibly recycled to reclaim materials, including:

Gold, silver and platinum from circuit boards

Copper wiring from phone chargers

Nickel, iron, cadmium and lead from battery packs

Plastic from phone cases and accessories

“The United States Military will always play an important role in peacekeeping missions worldwide,” said co-founder Robbie Bergquist. Therefore connecting our troops with their loved ones is the least that we can do for their daily sacrifices for us.”